Lark Alfen
Lark Alfen is the main character of the series. He is a human secretly living in Crepuscule for the last 10 years. He is a freshman student at Arzew Academy. Character Information Appearance Lark has red eyes, similar to vampires, despite being human, and has messy, blonde hair. His appearance is that of a typical teenage boy and his clothes are casual. Although it is not visible from under his clothes, Lark always wears the pink necklace that Arche had given him, before he left for Arzew. This necklace is identical to the one that Carmilla Erzebet always wears. Later revealed to be the same neckles Carmilla wore before she was frozen by Giles De Raies. After Vlad Tepes gives Lark her power, his eyes become like that of a pureblood vampire, or something in the middle between a pureblood's and his regular eyes at times. When tapping in to Tepes's power, he begins to share a likelihood with her appearance, most noticably showing in donning her tribal markings and red hair on multiple occasions. These things also seem to happen when his emotions are running high - namely in recent chapters this has been triggered by his anger and irritation, when before this drastic change was triggered when he was talking to Bathory about the state of things. Personality Lark is a light-hearted slacker. He isn't the brightest bulb in the shed, but he occasionally has something insightful to say. He is kind to the people he meets. But, behind his smile, he always has a fear, deep inside, of being exposed as a human. Because of Setz, he does have some abandonment issues. After being bullied for having red eyes in the human world, Lark doesn't feel comfortable standing out. His ultimate wish is to lead a simple and usual life, surrounded by friends. After Angela's murder, Vlad Tepes gives Lark his power. Lark then transforms into a completely new personality. He becomes cold and arrogant and distances himself even from his friends. He is much more forceful and aggressive, willing to fight anyone in his way. After learning of Vlad's past and her connection to him, he regains some of his old personality and lets Tepes soothe the burn left by Angela's death, but is still daring and forceful. He has since focused immensely in his goals (with a little wavering in between, especially when it comes to Tepes's goals and the state of the world he's in), although he still wishes to finish school like Angela wanted. History Lark's father died in a carriage accident two months before Lark was born. His mother died of a seizure several weeks after his birth. After the death of both of his parents, Lark was left in the care of his mother's sister. Lark's foster parents treated the red-eyed boy as a monster who caused the death of his parents. Lark's red eyes also caused him to be bullied and called a monster, by the other kids in his village. Around the time he was 5 years old, Lark met Setz, a real vampire with red eyes who became Lark's first friend. Because his guardians were thinking of sending him back to the orphanage, Lark decided to leave their care and run away. Before going, he wanted to say goodbye to his only friend, Setz. However, Setz decided to take Lark with him to his World, where everyone has red eyes, so that they wouldn't have to separate. But upon their arrival, Setz had to leave Lark with Angela because he had to return home with his father Ratatusk Trenkel Navarus. Lark then stayed with Angela, in Nergal region, for ten years, attending weekend school. Plot Overview Part I Ten years later after leaving the human world, Lark is enrolled by Angela in Arzew Academy in Navarus, despite his complaints. Angela orders him to retrieve some ingredients from the director of the school for her. Lark arrives in Navarus and finishes first in the sunlight entrance exam.Later, he befriends a classmate of his, Seere Klein. At first, he dislikes his new whereabouts and sets to find the Director of Arzew, in order to retrieve Angela's ingredients and return to Nergal. But, after meeting Bathory, who recognizes him as human, he is scared to meet a first generation vampire, abandons his mission, and stays in his room depressed. An unexpected meeting with Seere brightens him and he starts attending his classes after missing one whole day. He soon makes a second friend, his roomate, Sia Kul. Some time later, in the day of the student council's Declaration Ceremony, he mistakenly comes across Carne Greyfell and Neal. While trying to help Neal during his fit of rage, Lark is wounded badly by Neal and collapses. While sleeping, Lark has his first dream of the veiled woman. He wakes up, some time later, in the infirmary, and discovers that Angela has come to school as a nurse. While recovering there, he sees Setz again after 10 years, when the boy comes to apologize on behalf of Neal. Lark promises Angela to make up with him, in return for obtaining from her, a rare book that informs humans how to use magic. As time passes, with the help of Angela and Bathory, he starts regaining his friendship with him. On the day Nergal invades the school to kidnap Bathory, Lark discovers that the noble knows about his human identity. He also learns about Carmilla and the research Angela is working on under Navarus. This causes him to distance himself for a while from her, until Bathory advises him to go talk with her. Some time later, a little before the make up exams, he starts planning a tour in Navarus for him and his friends. One of these days, the veiled woman appears in his dream again. Lark starts questioning her about who she is and what's going on. Suddenly, the veiled woman disappears and while searching for her, Lark comes across a twin of him with red hair, pureblood vampire eyes and tattoos on his face and neck. At that moment, Lark wakes up. For the first time, he remembers all of the dreams he has been having of the veiled woman. He runs to the infirmary to find Angela and tell her about these dreams. To his surprise, Angela is actually there. As soon as she notices Lark, she gives him a crystall ball, with which to contact Bathory, and tells him to get out of the building, to be safe. Lark calls Bathory and tells her to meet him in front of the main building. They meet there and become witnesses of Carne's rampage and death. At the end of it all, Angela turns and says to Lark and the other students that have gathered, to return to their dorms. As Lark is leaving, he is thinking that next time he sees Angela, he will tell her about his dreams. But, he is unable to contact Angela the period after the rampage, and Bathory tells him that the woman is in the Council. Part II A week passes since Angela left for the Council. Lark sends her a letter that doesn't reach her. He learns from Bathory that Setz is overstressing himself, so he decides to help with student council work. The same night, Setz reveals to him his unnatural birth. Not long after this, Lark has a dream where the veiled woman, who is crying, tells him to stay strong. The next morning, Bathory informs him that Angela has gone missing while returning from the Council. Lark spends the following days anxious over Angela's fate. The veiled woman appears again in his dream and reveals that she is Carmilla. Lark asks Carmilla whether Angela is alive, only to find out that she's dead. Sunked into despair, he demands from Carmilla to reveal the identity of the killer. Carmilla refuses and says that his sorrow is too dark and deep. Suddenly, Carmilla is stabbed through the chest by Lark's red-haired doppleganger. Carmilla fades away and the doppleganger identifies himself as Vlad Tepes and offers Lark his power, to help him avenge Angela's killers. Lark, blinded by sadness and boiling rage, accepts the offer. He wakes up the next day and reveals his new "Light" ability, by blowing up a large part of the roof, during the "Ability Releasing Ceremony" of his class. Later, Setz demands explanations from Lark about his powers, but Lark asks him to not interfere in his plans. He then goes to meet the teachers and he gets one week probation and two weeks of community services as a punishment for the destruction he caused. He decides to leave school during his probation and go find Nergal, in order to discover something about Angela. Sia asks explanations about his behavior and Lark invites him to a fight. Sia almost wins, until Tepes takes over and leaves Sia unconscious. Lark then goes to Angela's house. Nergal appears. Lark acts arrogantly and, while trying to get information from him about Angela, he calls Nergal his pet. The noble instantly gets angry and starts a battle with him. He easily brings Lark to the ground and starts asking him questions about his connection to Tepes. After a while, while Nergal is hurting Lark, Tepes intervenes. Larks passes out and appears before him. The vampire then shows Lark a flashback of how he met his mother and got inside him. After it has finished, Lark blames him for his mother's death. Tepes, to repay for it, promises to help him in his quest to find Angela's murderers. Lark wakes up and meets Seere and Sia. Seere heals him and, when she is done, Lark returns to school with them. After they have arrived, he meets Setz and Sai, and demands that they go to meet Navarus. They arrive at Navarus' office and meet Bathory. Sylvia is discovered, tied up and admits to killing Angela. Later, Navarus enters and Lark asks Navarus to explain himself. When Navarus refuses, but Lark confesses that he knows the secret behind the Forest of Night and that he came from the outer world, leaving Navarus to believe that he is from Tepes' clan. Lark calls Navarus incompetent and declares he'll continue on alone and leaves the office. Bathory follows him, and asks what his intentions are. Lark just declares that he can never forgive the council, as his hair turns red and he gain the same tattoos as Tepes. Power and Abilities Ability Being a human, Lark has no ability. But, during his first term, in a desperate condition, he accepts Vlad Tepes's ability – lightness and darkness. Lark admits to not understanding his new ability at first and, as such, is unskilled at it. However, it is shown later that he has come to understand the Light side of his ability in his fight with the Council. Lark's light ability tends to appear as destructive crimson lightning. He has also shown the ability to turn his hair red and have the same tattoos as Tepes does. Lark can stand on light particles in midair, making it look like he can fly as well as materialize the torn part of his clothes and heal his wounds. Since Tepes's ability was given to him, he also possesses the other side of Tepes's ability: darkness, which manifests itself in the ability to steal bodies. He has yet to be shown using this ability. Additionally, Lark is able to see Tepes's memories when the occasion is right. Magic Despite being human, Lark manages to do magic thanks to an ancient magic book exclusively for humans, given to him by Angela. Until now, he has achieved to cast some low-level spells, like "fireball", but he has found it hard to proceed to the next level. But, with hard personal work and with the help of Seere, he manages to continue his practice and to make some more progress. Relationships Angela Angela and Lark have a mother and son relationship. Lark considers Angela the closest person to him, not only because she is the one who raised him, but also because, until recently, she was the only one in the village they were living, who knew he was human. Although he sometimes behaves really immature and is mean to her, he wishes to make her proud and not fail at the expectations she has from him when it comes to school. When he discovers that Angela is a first generation, meaning she will never die, he feels his world shaken and becomes depressed at the thought that Angela will forget everything about him after he dies. When Angela reassures him that this will never happen, he is relieved. But, when Angela suggests him to start calling her mother, he embarassingly refuses, as it would feel awkward to use this term for the first time in his life. The greatest example of their relationship is how deeply Angela's death hurts him. He then becomes focused on avenging her and fulfilling her wishes. Setz Setz was Lark's first friend. The two boys were very close until Setz was forced to abandon Lark. Even after meeting, ten years later, Lark was still resentful of Setz for abandoning him and didn't care about him anymore. After he realizes that his happy life was all due to Setz, and sees that Setz appears to be miserable, he decides to make up with Setz and become friends again. They, then, start slowly getting closer to each other. But after Angela's death, their relationship sours a bit. Setz is shown to be unsettled by Lark's new personality. He knows, however, that Setz would follow him anywhere, so when Setz follows him to the Council he's happy. He's happy despite the fact that the reason Setz followed him was to stop him, and he makes sure to do his best to keep Setz safe. Bathory Spitzen At first, Lark was scared of Bathory because she drank a little of his blood and she immediately understood he was human. He even doesn't try to hide his disapproval during their first meetings. Over time, thanks to her being Angela's niece and to her character, Lark overcomes his reservations towards the girl and they develop a very close relationship. Bathory even advises Lark about his relationship with Setz and Angela. Lark ends up asking Bathory for any information that he needs. Seere Klein When Lark arrived at Arzew, he was attracted to her beauty. Seere became Lark's first friend at the Academy. Due to Seere's kind nature, Lark felt comfortable enough to stay at his new school. She is, now, his best friend in Arzew. He mostly shares with her his thoughts about Setz. Sia Kul When Lark first met Sia, he was terrified of the fact that he is a zombie and didn't want to be a roommate with him. After he got over his prejudice, Lark tried to get close to Sia. The two boys finally became friends. Carne Greyfell Lark sees Carne as a kind and very beautiful girl. When he learns that Setz is Carne's fiancée, he feels envious of him. Neal Neal is the person that currently Lark detests the most. It is the only person for which he has strong negative feelings. He is scared of him, since Neal attacked him and doesn't want him around. His hatred and anger for Neal grew even bigger when the boy refuses to apologize to him for hurting him. Nergal Lark immediately felt a warm feeling for Nergal, the first time he met him in person, although he didn't know yet that this man was the baby fox he used to play with. When he discovered it, he felt the urge to get in the middle of Nergal's battle with Navarus, to protect him. Although he knows that the noble captured and tortured Bathory, Lark still has the feeling that Nergal is a good person. But, after Nergal attacks him, Lark is terrified by Nergal's real character. He is now aware that Nergal loves him, although what he thinks about this is unknown. Vlad Tepes Lark initially felt threatened by Tepes the first time he met her. He couldn't solve the mystery of why she looked exactly like him and why she kept appearing before him. When he obtained the vampire's ability, Lark got even more scared of her although he more easily expressed his annoyance when she interfered. After Tepes revealed to Lark the connection they share, the boy blames her for his mother's death. But, even after this, he is unsure as to whether his feelings are positive or negative for her because he can't completely blame her; she tells him that if she had been alive, Florian would have never died - and he believes her. Since Tepes is protective of Lark and willingly gives Lark her powers, stepping back to quiet inside of him unless she feels like she has to speak up (which she is shown doing in later chapters, willingly conversing with him), Lark admits to himself that she might indeed be after his well-being and once he understands why she's there, he doesn't speak ill of her and respects her. Lark is appreciative of her being there with him, understanding that he hasn't been alone all of his life after all, and while he states that he felt like he was being scolded by his father in a conversation with her he doesn't seem to have strong enough feelings towards her to consider her a parental figure like he does with Angela. He's even been shown to get annoyed with her when she takes over his body without his permission, shown especially in the fight with Gilles de Rais. Tepes ends up pulling Lark into his counciousness once again during this fight to end the fight quicker, but when he tries to tell her that it's his fight she ends up giving him a nasty glare that he doesn't know what to do with, making it more evident that he doesn't like when she takes over his body. However, this is mostly because he's particularly sensitive of his own identity during this fight due to Gilles's earlier taunts about Tepes having the ability to take over his body completely. Carmilla Erzebet Lark respects Carmilla's words and even seems to like her on some varying level. Lark first met her at his home at the Nergal region were she asked him if he was okay with him going to school. Lark thought this to be a hallucination and brushed it off. The next time Lark sees Carmilla is when he's attacked by Neal and is sleeping in the nurse's office. He is shown his memories of both worlds and Carmilla says that he is special, and that because of that he will always be lonely. She gives him a choice between staying in Crepuscule and leaving, and he chooses to stay. When Lark learns that Angela is a first generation and won't age or die, he starts avoiding her so Carmilla appears again and with tears in her eyes asks him not to make Angela sad. When Carne goes on a rampage, Carmilla appears yet again and warns Lark to be careful around his friend; however, this time Lark sees Tepes in his form, which enables Lark to remember everything when he wakes up. After Angela's death, Lark asks Carmilla if Angela is dead and she says yes, telling him that that Angela is gone and that she can't come back. While crying, Lark asks who she is and to tell him who killed Angela. Carmilla tells him her name and that she has been watching over the world by dreaming, but says she can't tell him anything else because his anger is too dark. Lark tells her to bring her back in a dream, but she is killed by his doppleganger who informs him that not even Carmilla can bring back the dead. The next time she appears is to ask him to stop Tepes, something only he seems to be able to do either because Tepes cares about him or because the body Tepes is using is Lark's, and Lark calls Carmilla irresponsible when she disappears without telling him what Tepes is going to try and do. Trivia In chapter 119, it was revealed the Lark inherited his red vampire eyes from Tepes. As a result, all of the torture and beatings he got from the humans in the outer world while he was growing up were Tepes's fault. In chapter 148, It was revealed that not only does Vlad Tepes live inside of Lark, but Carmilla Erzebet found a way with her blood and through her necklace to merge with Lark's subconious and dream world. Her connection isn't as strong as Tepes's, however, because Tepes merged her life force and soul with Lark. If not for Lark, Carmilla would still be in stasis. Category:Characters Category:Human Category:Student Category:Male